Tuesday, December 17, 2013

handmade holidays: a wreath for the door


I seem to be playing around with new kinds of wreath-making of late. Though I first learned to make small bundles of greens, and to affix them to a wreath form, hiding the bundled ends of one bunch with the free tips of another, lately I've been braiding and weaving and tucking branches. I made this wreath out of a wire hanger from a dry cleaner (that I shaped into a circle; I used the twisted hook to form a little loop to hang it on a nail on the door), and two whippy cedar boughs. I affixed the two boughs to the wire loop (and to each other, and then braided the branches on each bough around the wire and the bough itself. Then I wove sprigs of seed pod eucalyptus (from which I'd removed the leaves) into the cedar base, and tucked branches of rosehips (leftover from my Thanksgiving table flower arrangements - below) in among the eucalyptus. I'm not sure that this is as secure a way to make a wreath, but I like the slightly wilder and looser aesthetic, and it seems secure enough for something that doesn't have to travel or be handled by many people.


(for Thanksgiving I paired greenish/pinkish hued white roses with orange mums, rosehips, and some kind of greenery that I couldn't identify. It was simple, but I liked the effect with the beeswax tapers and the blue runner.)

3 comments:

FA Neophyte said...

That's very pretty! I really like how loose and natural it looks. BTW, how is your kitty cat doing?

fleur_delicious said...

Thank you Stacy! And how sweet of you to ask about the little one! =) She seems 100% recovered from the UTI and now we are ALL counting down the days until she is done with the antibiotics. I have never had such a fight with her against medication - my husband and I laugh, but we feel so guilty. Today, as he pulled her out from under the bed to get her dose, she wriggled free and took off running. I headed her off in the kitchen, where she skidded to a stop on the linoleum, yowled, and turned to run the other way - only to see my husband standing there. She kind of flattened herself to the ground, yowling ...I felt terrible. Of course, 10 minutes after it was over, she was fine, but boy, she really hates this! I cannot WAIT for it to be over and done with. I hope she forgets it all very quickly...

Magical Daydream said...

The wreath looks cute!